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August 6, 2009

Two hard hit EU countries show recovery

by Sam Savage

Two of the hardest hit European Union states are showing signs of economic recovery, statistics offices in Britain and Spain reported Thursday.

In Britain, industrial production, mainly in the car industry, rose 0.5 percent from May to June, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is the biggest since October 2007, the EU Observer reported.

Overall, these surveys provide encouraging evidence that the economic recovery is building up a decent amount of momentum. But the recovery is still in its early stages, Vicky Redwood from Capital Economics told the Daily Guardian.

The number of people in Spain filing for unemployment benefits fell for the third month in a row in July, the country's labor ministry reported. The decline was strongest in construction and service sectors. Spain's unemployment hit 18.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, the highest among EU countries.